Trains have started running through the 7·3 km twin-bore El-Qantas tunnel, under construction since 2011. The works of this tunnel have been finalized with a view to upgrade Algiers – Oran main line for faster speeds.

This project has been built for railway infrastructure authority ANESRIF by China Railway Construction Corp and its Turkish partner Ozgun Construction, with project management support from Systra and Poyry. Construction had been delayed by difficult geological conditions, but the bores were finally holed through in October 2017, and fitting out was completed by the end of 2018.

The second longest railway tunnel in Africa, the El-Qantas tunnel and the neighbouring 2·8 km Ramdane tunnel form the centrepiece of a project to realign and upgrade a 56 km section of the Alger – Oran route, running from El Affroun in the wilaya of Blida, approximately 100 km southwest of the capital, to Khemis-Miliana in the neighbouring wilaya of Ain Defla. The bores of both tunnels have been designed to accommodate the planned 25 kV 50 Hz electrification.

According to the Ministry of Transport & Public Works, increasing the maximum speeds to between 160 km/h and 220 km/h would enable national operator SNTF to reduce Alger – Oran journey times from the current 4 h 30 min to around 2 h 30 min.

railwaygazette

WHO IS DZ BREAKING?

An Algerian news website aims at covering all the country’s territory through providing objective and positive image, focusing the most on breaking news.

A dynamic team is working on feeding the website by credible information in all fields of life; a reliable network composed of specialized elements working in harmony with our team in Algiers, the website’s headquarter, provides us more coverage and simultaneity.

“English” is what makes us different in Algeria and ranks us first too not only as a news website; English also makes it simple and fast for Anglophone world to discover our country.